Sergio Perez's third place in Bahrain was only Force India's second podium finish: the other one came nearly five years ago, in their second season in F1.

Giancarlo Fisichella ended up second behind Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in the 2009 Belgian GP at Spa. It was a brief purple patch for Force India, as Adrian Sutil finished fourth for them in the next race, at Monza.

Since then, though, the team's best positions had been two fourth places for Paul di Resta and one for Nico Hulkenberg.

It was a fourth podium finish for Sergio Perez: he finished second in Malaysia, third in Canada and second again in Italy for Sauber in 2012.